Ancienti

I have just been buying a few coins for gift purposes, these days. Non-ancient, a few Meiji era gold/silver coins at a pretty reasonable price for these. Also a few Marcus Aurelius denarii, of which I’ve given one away already. Also, it seems that Common Bronze has raised their price on semi-cleaned Roman coins. Oh, well. I think I have enough of those for now. Right now, trying to sell off a gold American Eagle, and am on the lookout for another pirate coin, a 2 escudo doubloon. That’s about it, I guess. Keeping busy.

In other happenings in my coin collecting life, which I may or may not post pics of here, I bought (finally bought) my pirate coin. It’s a genuine piece of 8, 8 reales minted in Potosi, Bolivia in 1689. This is smack dab in the middle of the Golden Age of Pirates. That, well I guess I could link to the pic I have of it on my blog. I also picked up a bargain, a 20 kopek Russian coin from 1869 (100 years before my birth year), which I picked up on eBay for $4. Not bad for a silver coin. I have my eye on some gold there, also from about that period, but I did get outbid on a 1769 coin from the Netherlands, which I was going to buy for a friend who is also turning 40 this year. Oh well. So it goes.

I’ve decided I’m never going to get to these, so I’m selling them all off in a batch:

They’ve been soaking in Gringgott’s #1 for well over a year now. Cheers.

Had a drachm and have been itching to buy a tet for some time now:

This one fit the quality/price ratio I was looking for. Off eBay.

YAMA (yet another Marcus Aurelius):

It was a deal on eBay, after all, and I have someone in mind to give this to.

Well, a piece of 8 from 1691 I bid on in a live auction on eBay — I didn’t win it. The price went well over the estimated value of the thing, and it was just more than I was prepared to pay. Have the saved search on eBay emailing me every day with new matches for it, so we’ll see what the future brings on that regard. In other news, there is a Mark Antony legionary denarius I have my eye on, but again, it comes down to just what I am prepared to pay for it. It has a very nice obverse, with the “ANT AVG” clearly visible, but there are a couple test marks on the reverse. Hopefully the flaws will keep the price low, but you can see the oars on the thing, so that might not be likely. We shall see what we shall see.

Here is that Greek coin I bought off eBay:

Helios on the obverse, an incuse rose on the reverse. Pretty inexpensive, since it’s a little off-center. But the bust is pretty complete, and very nicely struck.